The Festival du Film Britannique, a programme of new British films capped by a competition for those not yet bought for France, has handed its top prize to 29-year-old Asif Kapadia of Hackney, East London.

Kapadia walked off with the £1,000 award for his directoral debut The Warrior, an action fantasy drama set in the foothills of the Himalayas and budgeted at aroud £2.5m.

The jury, led by actress Emily Watson, also gave special mention to John Carney's On the Edge, a film about a young joyrider who opts for a psychiatric hospital over prison. Starring newcomer Cillian Murphy, the picture scooped both the cinematographer prize and the audience award.

Kapadia, a former student at the Royal College of Art, made The Warrior with a largely unknown group of Asian actors. He said: "It is a tremendous honour to be placed ahead of such a marvellous line-up of film-makers. I hope this is the start of something for me."

Describing the making of his film, Kapadia said: "I didn't want to take the easy route and make a small first film; two people in a room didn't interest me. I wanted to push myself a bit more. A year and a half later I was standing in the middle of the desert in Rajasthan, India, with a crew of 250. We had horses, camels, buffalos, scorpions, armed warriors, 600 warriors filling a 500-year-old-fort. I looked around me: this was it, my first film."

The Warrior plays at this year's Regus London Film Festival, where it has been nominated for the Sutherland Trophy and the FIPRESCI award, and is due for release in the UK next year. It is a Film Four, Senator Films, and British Screen co-production.

Kapadia will take part in a special event, entitled Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, at the London Film Festival, where he will be in conversation with international film-maker Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) on November 9.